Aug 02, 2012: Identity Theft is a serious crime which is growing by leaps and bounds. In this electronic world where millions of e-transactions take place in the world of finance every day, identity theft has become a lucrative profession for phishers.

Once our identities are stolen, it might cost us thousands of dollars as well as take months of humongous efforts to fix it. So it definitely pays to exercise caution and knowledgeable care to protect our accounts and identities from e-thieves.

Here are some basic guidelines towards protection of our identities:

Be suspicious of ANY email that asks for sensitive personal information, even if the sender seems to be familiar

Never open attachments or click links in spam or unsolicited emails

Avoid filling out forms contained in an email message or pop-ups, even if they appear to be from a legitimate company with whom you do business

Run the latest version of a proven anti-virus software program on your computer

If you have logged on to a Web site, log off when you are finished and close your browser completely. Even better, destroy the cookies (check the options / tools tab of your browser to do so).

Comments posted on FIRE Finance are moderated and will be approved only if they are on-topic and not abusive. Please avoid comments with spam website URLs. We look forward towards your comments and feedback :) - Thanks.